A recent study from BtoB Magazine found that the number of business-to-business marketers engaging in content marketing nearly doubled in the past year, jumping from 18% in 2011 to 34% in 2012. But what exactly does content marketing look like to B2B marketers? We dug into the “Content Marketing: Ready for Prime Time,” a survey of 440 business-to-business marketers to take a closer look at goals, tactics and challenges for content marketing in 2012.
B2B Content Marketing: Primary Goals
B2B marketers turn to content marketing first and foremost as a way to generate qualified leads. Brand awareness, thought leadership and sales were also cited as reasons for employing content marketing strategies.
B2B Content Marketing: Secondary Goals
But lead generation and sales aren’t the only benefits of a content program. B2B brands also use content marketing as a means for improving engagement, enhancing trust, gaining relevant touch points with audiences and finally for search engine optimization.
B2B Content Marketing: Most Effective Content
B2B marketers turn to a variety of content types to provide value to audiences. Social media came in on top, with 80% saying social engagement is an effective means for boosting sales and marketing effectiveness. Other popular content types include articles, e-newsletters, white papers, blogs, case studies and videos.
B2B Content Marketing: Biggest Challenges for 2012
Despite the enthusiasm for B2B content marketing, the strategy comes with a unique set of challenges. The survey shows a pretty even spread between lack of resources, inability to produce engaging content and inability to produce enough content to fill the pipeline as primary challenges. 22% of B2B marketers mentioned that they have issues identifying success metrics for content marketing programs.
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